I've decided that I hate my screen name, and want to use the one that I use on every other site on the web. Famicommander is my new screen name. Feel free to track me, and watch my blog just as you have with this account. I'm transferring leadership of the All Things SEGA Union to that account as well.

Total members: 40 Current design state: pretty much finished Total members from Gamespot: 21 Click here to join up. For those who don't know, The Board is a forum site that I run. Almost anything is up for discussion and everyone is welcome. Current and former Gamespot members that are registered members of The Board: SmashBrosLegend, pintabear49blue, jaydough, ff7fan2, Cube_of_MooN, foxhound_fox, gameer1, VGobbsesser, blackngold29, linkthewindow, frattracide, jmorey01, Gen_Warbuff, Fireball2500, USSJAndrew, krunkfu2, whoozwah, Idunn, Johnny_Stabb, lavadisk It's growing more and more each day. I'll see you there. EDIT: got another one. USSJAndrew. EDIT: Another. VGobbsesser. EDIT: MoldOnHold

Hey there, Gamespot. I haven't been around as much lately, but that's over with. First my internet was down for a while and then I got really sick. But it's all good now. What's going on with the rest of you? Also, you all know that I can't make a blog post without plugging The Board. The Board is a relatively new forum that I run. There are few rules and anything is open for discussion. You'll find a lot of Gamespot people there, as well as some of my friends from other boards. I'd love to see any and all of you that take the time to read my blog over there. Everyone is welcome. Check it out and refer some friends.

http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ http://theboard.lumak.net/ Join.

We're up to nine members, and that's just from earlier today. But we still need more. I expected a lot more of you guys to show interest. Read my previous two blog posts for more info and a link.

The Board Well, not exactly finished, but functional for sure. I would love to have any and all of you join. Don't be fooled by the low member count we have right now, either. I literally just opened it for registration a few minutes ago. I'm expecting about 40 members within the week. We're not aiming to be a gigantic forum or anything, we just want enough users to keep it active. We want there to be a few new posts or topics every single time that you log in. Go ahead and sign up, and start posting. Be sure to introduce yourself and everything. Last night we had a bit of a glitch, but I think we worked it out. If any of you have issues logging in or posting, PM me here and I'll look into it. Refer your friends, and have fun.

My friend and I are starting yet another forum, but this time discussion will not be focused on anything. We're going for an Off-Topic feel, but without many rules. Registration will be open to anyone, and pretty much anything will be open for discussion. The Board has already been created, but we've decided not to post the link to it until we've got the design finished. How many of you, by a show of comments, would be interested in joining up? And don't worry; I won't be leaving Gamespot or anything. This is just a side project.

First of all, he's never accomplished anything. He's been a senator for three years, and has spent two of them campaigning for president. Sure, he's sponsored numerous bills, but name me a senator that hasn't. Most of the time his work in the Senate has been nothing more than signing his name on a bill, rather than drafting bills himself and bringing about “change”. Then there's the whole Iraq thing. He said he would have all of the troops home within 18 months of getting into office. That basically says "Just wait it out, insurgency. We'll be gone soon, and you can have the country". Leaving the country in its current state would cause more damage to the region than we would if we stayed there twenty more years (not that we should). The loss of life would be substantial, but Obama doesn't care. He's simply capitalizing on the fact that the war is unpopular at the moment. What most people don't realize is that this war has the smallest death toll for US soldiers of any prolonged military conflict. One of Obama's campaign platforms is the fact that he didn't vote for the war. That's because he wasn't a national senator yet, not because he had the foresight to see that it may be more difficult that we initially thought. He said that he would send troops into Pakistan without their consent to pursue Al Qaeda. Pakistan said doing so could cause them to take military action against us, and Obama wouldn't back down from his statements. So, he wants to end a war that we have no business ending and potentially start another. Does anyone see the problem here? Of course, none of these statements get much air time because everyone is so caught up in his rhetoric garbage. How about universal health care? Universal health care kills hospitals. I agree that better health insurance should be made available at better prices, but universal health care is a ridiculous idea. The overwhelming majority of our doctors come from Southeast Asian countries. Why do they come here? Because it offers them a chance to succeed. But a socialist health care system removes incentive for the individual to excel because pay is regulated by the government. Even in some developed countries with universal health care, there is such a doctor shortage that people are dying in hospital waiting rooms because they have to wait to be seen in an emergency room. Not to mention the fact that the amount of taxes you'd pay per year to support such a system would outweigh the cost of the medical problems the average person will have in a given year. According to the 2004 US Census, only 15.4% of US citizens were without health insurance. Why is it my responsibility to pay for someone else's problems? If your life is in danger, you can't legally be turned away from an emergency room. His ideas on gun control are ridiculous as well. Making certain guns illegal won't solve the problem. You're only taking these weapons away from law abiding citizens. People who are willing to use a gun to kill someone are damn sure willing to violate a simple gun law. Think about it: cocaine is illegal. Does that stop people from getting their hands on it? And then we have his lines, like "No more Washington politicians in Washington!" He's a Senator. That makes him a Washington politician. He works in Washington, and there's nothing in his voting record that sets him apart from the likes of Hillary Clinton or Ted Kennedy. Barack Obama's former pastor and mentor, Jeremiah Wright, is noted by many for placing black people on a higher level than white people. He is a black elitist. He is also noted for his constant praise of Louis Farrakhan, a noted racist, homophobe, and anti-Semite. Wright has presented this man with awards and travelled to Libya with him. Farrakhan publicly endorsed Obama, and even though Obama rejected it the link remains. Obama got the title for one of his books from Wright, and even once considered having the man announce his candidacy. Here are some quotes from Farrakhan: "White people are potential humans; they haven't evolved yet." "Murder and lying comes easy for white people." Farrakhan's mentor was Elijah Muhammad, who had such memorable quotes as: "Blacks were born righteous and turned to unrighteousness, while the white race was made unrighteous by the god who made them." This man considered himself "the savior of the holy black race" and crusaded against Christianity. Obama is also on friendly terms with William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground, a domestic terrorist group who has bombed U.S. government buildings and even tried to carry out an attack on the Pentagon. Ayers has even gone on record saying that not only does he have no regrets, but feels he didn't do enough. Obama still maintains his friendship with the man. Friends with a man who said that he should have done more to bomb the Pentagon. Barack Obama has the most liberal voting record of any Senator. He is pretty much a Socialist. He advocates government expansion and taking away personal liberties. If you plan on voting for Barack Obama, at least know what you're getting yourself into.

People here are always arguing over which web browser is the best, and it always comes down to Firefox users ganging up on IE7 and Safari users. But everyone seems to forget that there is another browser that absolutely owns all three: Opera. Opera is the fastest and most capable browser on the web. It comes standard with many things which Firefox requires add-ons to use. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at a few comparisons between Opera, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Netscape. First off, we have OS compatibility. Nothing too difficult, right? Opera and Firefox have great compatibility, with Opera at a slight advantage. Now, lets check out those cool features everyone loves: All the browsers pass except Internet Explorer. How about Accessibility? Opera and Safari stand apart from the rest. How about some different accessibility features? Opera has the most. What about those groovy protocols, you ask? I bet you didn't know that Opera comes standard with a BitTorrent protocol and an IRC protocol, did you? Chalk up another win. What about support for image formats? Safari takes the cake this time, with Opera not far behind. The other three browsers are lacking. But how's the Java support? Great for Opera and Safari. Not nearly as good for Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Netscape. What about web technologies? Opera wins by a mile. Yeah, alright. But everyone knows Firefox is the safest and most secure. WRONG! Opera has a whopping 0 known security vulnerabilities, compared to a total of five for Firefox, four for Safari, and a ridiculous 33 for Internet Explorer. Alright, we've established that Opera is the most capable. But oh no: [quote=”Wikipedia”]Opera has also been criticized for website compatibility issues, partly because many web sites do not adhere to web standards as diligently as Opera.

Compatibility issues? That doesn't sound good. A lot of websites are built below Opera's standards, causing them to malfunction. Two such sites are Gamespot and Photobucket. Well, you can't be expected to avoid those sites, now can you? So, I guess we'll have to quit using Opera... Oh, wait! Opera has the ability to identify itself as either Opera, Internet Explorer, or Firefox, thus eliminating all compatibility issues. You can do this on a site-by-site basis by simply right-clicking, selecting “Edit Site Preferences”, and doing what you see has been done in the picture. Not at all difficult, and it only has to be done once. Your setting will be remembered, even if you clear your history. Something else that is cool, and unique to Opera: Mouse Gesture navigation. Go back and forth or create a new tab with a few quick clicks. Here are the three most common reasons that people give when deciding not to make the switch to Opera: 1.The adblock is inferior 2.There is no spell check 3.There aren't customizable themes. Well, they're wrong on all three counts. Since I set up my adblock, I have not seen a single in-page ad. I'm using Opera's spell check right now to correct this post. I'm not a “theme” guy myself, but there are plenty to be found and you can even create your own. Adblock and spell check are already part of Opera. You just have to activate them. How to activate adblock in Opera How to activate Spellcheck for Opera Where to get Opera themes Opera also doesn't have any memory leaks, and Opera claims that it is the fastest browser that you can get for Windows. Of course it may vary from computer to computer, but that is a true statement as far as I can tell. It runs much faster than any other browser on my Windows XP laptop and my Ubuntu desktop. Oh, and a few last things to point out about the Opera browser that I just thought were cool: The personal bar is awesome. Opera also has all of my passwords saved, so when I want to log into Gamespot, for example, I click on the System Wars icon on the personal bar. Then, I hit Ctrl+enter, and it logs me in. The same thing works for every site on my list. Oh, and don't come up in here with your Firefox 3 crap. It's only on Beta 3, and by the time it is out Opera 9.5 will be out to own it. This topic is in no way an insult to Firefox or Safari, because I used to use them all the time. They're both great browsers. The point of this was simply to show the reasons why I think Opera is vastly superior. This was also, however, a direct insult towards Internet Explorer and Netscape. Those browsers are terrible.

Do you ever find yourself wondering if I hate you or not? I thought you might, so I made this list so that you can be sure. If you answer "yes" to five or more of the following questions, I probably hate you. 1. Do you like Insane Clown Posse? 2. Do you wear Crocs? 3. Do you play soccer? 4. Have you ever used the term "LAX" to describe the game of lacrosse? 5. Have you ever moved to a new country, and then refused to learn the local language? 6. Do you like U2? 7. Is your name Chad? 8. Are you a communist? 9. Have you ever tried to "convert" someone to Apple products? 10. Do you hate Walmart? 11. Do you type with poor spelling or grammar? 12. Do you type in shorthand? 13. Are you a professional athlete who thinks that god (if he exists) actually cares about you winning a game? 14. Are you an emo? 15. If you are a male. have you ever worn your sister's pants? 16. Have you ever sold me bad crack? :p 17. Do you post ads on Craigslist without any contact info? 18. Does your screen name follow the Xx(screen name)xX pattern, or any of its variants? 19. Does your screen name contain alt. caps? 20. Do you wear a "Livestrong" wristband? 21. Are you compelled to congregate in doorways while I'm trying to ****ing walk somewhere during school? 22. Do you consider yourself a "gangsta"? 23. Are you from France? 24. Are you John Madden? 25. Do you like the Detroit Red Wings, New York Yankees, Oakland Raiders, or LA Lakers? 26. Is your name Connor? 27. Do you blame society because your dumb ass couldn't make it through high school? 28. Have you ever used the phrase "No blood for oil"? 29. Are you Stephen A. Smith? 30. Do you get angry when people think the terms "techno" and "electronica" are interchangable? 31. Do you like Naruto? 32. Do you like One Piece? 33. Do you like Inuyasha? 34. Are you a Barack Obama supporter that has no idea why you're a Barack Obama supporter? 35. Do you drive a Honda Element or any type of Scion? That's it for now. If you answered "yes" to five or more, then I probably hate you.